


dreams

by thegirlwithmanynames



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen, Mikasa is mentioned in a small capacity, wasn't intended totally shippily but can be read as such!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-10
Updated: 2014-05-10
Packaged: 2018-01-24 04:44:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1592105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirlwithmanynames/pseuds/thegirlwithmanynames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Remember when we were kids and you showed me that book you found?"</p>
<p>Eren can't sleep, and he turns to Armin for help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	dreams

He can’t sleep.

It’s not an unusual occurrence, but it’s been happening more often, recently, for seemingly no reason. Sometimes he jolts awake, muffling a scream with his hand; sometimes he turns over in his cot and half dreams, half hallucinates Mikasa leaning over him, in the shade of a tree, chiding him for falling asleep instead of gathering branches; sometimes he chokes into consciousness, fingers scrabbling at his neck and finding only his father’s key.

He knows that others would think themselves weak for this, but he doesn’t. It’s what he always knew would happen, even before Wall Maria fell, because even he can be afraid, but he knows in the end he’ll overcome it all.

It doesn’t stop him from hating every second of it.

"Hey, Armin."

He turns over, props himself up on an elbow, pokes the arm of his sleeping friend. The blond groans, one arm coming up to cover his eyes though they haven’t opened yet, and pushes the side of his face further into his scratchy pillow.

"Eren," he mumbles, and moves his arm just enough for his blue eyes to peer blearily at him over it. "All right?"

"Yeah," he answers; it’s a lie and they both know it. Armin lets out a sigh as he blinks groggily and puts his hand on Eren’s still-tense arm.

"Sorry," comes the murmured apology. "Was asleep."

"No," Eren bites back vehemently — if he’d thought Armin was going to blame himself for his insomnia, he wouldn’t have woken him up — " _n_ _o._  I — wanted to ask a question.”

"Mm." To his credit, Armin puts on a face that makes him look like he believes it, despite the fact that he’s only just woken up. "What is it?"

He hasn’t prepared for this. He’d only wanted to talk to his best friend, wanted to scare off the nightmares with Armin’s calm voice to comfort him. So, then, he says the first thing that comes to mind.

"Remember when we were kids and you showed me that book you found?"

It’s clear that Armin wasn’t expecting the conversation to go this way, but Eren barrels on, too caught up to wait for him to reply. “The place you told me about first, with water full of salt that never runs out. I don’t remember it well. Tell me about it.”

The blond boy smiles — partly thanks to the characteristic bluntness of the request and partly due to the fact that it wasn’t at all a question — and gently squeezes Eren’s arm, reassuring. “It was called the ocean — remember?”

"Didn’t you say the sea?" he asks as he wriggles closer and lies back on the pillow, already much calmer than he had been earlier.

(There’s a warmth spreading in Armin’s chest at the fact that Eren  _does_ remember.)

"They’re two names for the same thing," he murmurs, "like how you’re Eren, but everyone here calls you a suicidal bastard. See?"

The dark-haired boy snorts. Armin takes that as a yes.

"It covers so much of the earth, Eren," he continues, whispering even more quietly, half in awe, "that you can look across and see nothing but water, never-ending. You’d need to build a cart for crossing water to go from one end of earth to another."

"You can’t walk?"

They’re close enough that Armin can see the genuine curiosity in Eren’s eyes, if dulled only slightly by the sleep that’s threatening to consume him. He smiles gently, shakes his head slightly. “It’s too far, and too deep. The ocean goes deeper than the walls are tall, and there are animals inside.”

"Like deer," Eren adds, "or boar."

"No, something else. Something called fish," he corrects gently, and Eren’s eyes widen.

"Fish," he repeats, and his pronunciation is different than the way Armin’s been imagining it to be said, but then, neither of them know what it truly means.

"Yeah," he says simply, "and they  _swim_.”

They’re close enough that the blond can  _feel_  Eren breathe rather than see it, and it calms him too, and he imagines that’s what an ocean sounds like.

"Like deer running, or birds flying. They live in the salt-water and they breathe it like we breathe air, and they can go deeper than the walls stand high without dying. They don’t need water-carts to move in it, and they can go wherever they’d like."

"Free," the dark-haired boy murmurs drowsily, and then — "I’ll take you to the ocean, Armin. You can teach me and Mikasa to breathe salt-water, and then we’ll go wherever we like."

For a moment, Armin forgets that humans can’t breathe salt-water like the mythical fish-creatures can, and he nods. “We will,” he agrees, and though Eren looks on the verge of finally succumbing to sleep, there’s a flash of determination in his eyes before he smiles.

"We will," he whispers like a promise.

This time, when Eren dreams, there are embraces and smiles and the glint of sunlight on deep blue water.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been writing massive amounts of SnK fic recently, and so I thought I'd put some of it here because I've been overwhelming my tumblr with it, and Eren and Armin late-night talking it out seemed like it should be the first one to be put up! Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated, as they always are for any fanfic writer, I guess. xD
> 
> This is crossposted from my tumblr (duh?), which has the same URL as my pseudonym here. Hope you're all doing well :D!


End file.
